References

2001 AAAS benchmarks: Chapter 9 - The Benchmarks for Science Literacy, by American Association for the Advancement of Science, "are statements of what all students should know or be able to do in science, mathematics, and technology by the end of grades 2, 5, 8, and 12." Chapter 9 describes in part, what students should know about measurement and uncertainty.

International Organization for Standardization, Guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurement (GUM) (ISO, Geneva, 1995) - This is the internationally agreed-upon standard for describing measurement uncertainty. While it is too technical to be of much use for introductory students or teachers, the methods described in this module are intended to be conceptually consistent with ISO GUM document. Specifically, the ISO GUM requires that measurements are expressed as a range of values, that is, as a number plus or minus some uncertainty.

B.N. Taylor and C.E. Kuyatt, Guidelines for Evaluating and Expressing the Uncertainty of NIST Measurement Results (NIST Technical Note 1297, 1994) - This document describes how labs and research organizations should communicate measurements. This document is not as technical as the ISO GUM document, and is a useful resource for teachers. Again, the methods proposed in this module are intended to be consistent with this guide

Lecture 1 from Physics 8-01 - Lecture #1 in the series of Walter Lewin's Lectures in Physics from MIT's Open Courseware. In this introductory lecture, Lewin discusses measurement uncertainty and does a demonstration showing the concept of uncertainty in measurement.

Buffler, Andy; Allie, Saalih; and Lubben, Fred, 2008. Teaching Measurement and Uncertainty the GUM Way, The Physics Teacher, Volume 46, Issue 9, pp. 539-543 - This article introduces a method for teaching measurement and uncertainty to introductory level college students. The authors provide and describe teaching materials (see below) that can be used to teach undergraduate science students techniques for measurement.

A. Buffler, S. Allie, F. Lubben, and B. Campbell, 2007. Introduction to Measurement in the Physics Laboratory . A Probabilistic Approach, Ed. 3.4 (Department of Physics, University of Cape Town) - This is essentially a textbook for teaching measurement and uncertainty to undergraduate science students. It is very complete and clear.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Synthesis Report (more info) and Summary for Policymakers (pdf file) - This is an example of how scientists communicate results to be used by non-scientists. As a matter of scientific literacy, readers of this report must be fluent in the concepts of measurement uncertainty. Data and calculation results presented in the report include uncertainties. The reader's ability to understand uncertainty is critical to being able to interpret and use these results to inform decisions. Note that the results include extensive use of uncertainty.